AMPUTATION PATIENTS OFTEN SUFFER DUE TO DELAYED TREATMENT
posted: Jul. 13, 2019.
As America’s epidemic of obesity continues, Type 2 diabetes has become so common that it’s easy to forget how serious a disease it is. When habits don’t change, when blood sugar control is spotty, when patients have had diabetes for many years, diabetes can lead to heart attacks and strokes, kidney disease and blindness. But even for people who have witnessed its ravages in family members, there’s something about an amputation that really brings home how insidiously destructive diabetes is.
Dr. Jane Pontious |
Doctors said amputation patients need better education and more care, but the complexity of their lives often gets in the way. Jane Pontious, DPM, a podiatrist and professor at the Temple University School of Podiatric Medicine, said some of her patients struggle with paying bills, buying food, or finding a place to live. Some have addictions. "They're trying to survive," she said. "Sometimes they don't get here right away." Sometimes, she said, she doesn't see them until "they get blood on their socks, they smell something, or they don't feel good. That's very common."
Source: Stacey Burling, Associated Press [7/6/19]
Courtesy of Barry Block, editor of PM News.
Brought to you by Doctor John A. Hardy, owner of Toronto's foot clinic, Academy Foot and Orthotic Clinics.